A Dhaka Pure Food Court on Tuesday issued arrest warrants against top bosses and officials of five companies, including ACME Agrovet and Beverages Ltd, Pran Dairy Ltd, and Akij Food and Beverage Limited, on charges of unauthorised production, marketing and sale of electrolyte drinks.
The two other accused companies are Deshbandhu Food and Beverage Limited, and Br眉vana Beverage Limited.
The court鈥檚 judge, Alaul Akbar, issued the arrest warrant following a case, said DSCC food safety inspector Kamrul Hasan, who filed the case against the five companies on the day.
Complainant Kamrul Hasan said that the court fixed June 5 and June 9 for the next hearings in the case.
Officials against whom arrest warrants were issued are Tanveer Sinha, owner of ACME Agrovet and Beverages Ltd, which produces SMC Plus orange and lemon-flavoured electrolyte drinks; Waliul Islam, owner of SMC Enterprise Ltd, the company responsible for marketing the ACME drinks; Golam Mostafa, chairman of Deshbandhu Food and Beverage Ltd, which produces Recharge Orange Revive Electrolyte Drink; and Sarajit Baral, chief executive officer, Agami Limited which is Deshbandhu鈥檚 marketing partner.
The others facing the arrest warrants are Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, chairman and CEO of Pran Dairy Ltd which produces orange and lemon flavoured Aktive+ Electrolyte Drink; Sheikh Shamim Uddin, chairman, Akij Food and Beverage Limited which produces Turbo Electrolyte Sports Drink; Md Touhidul Islam, factory in-charge of Br眉vana Beverage Limited which produces mango flavoured Bruvana Sports+ Electrolyte Beverage.
According to the case, the five companies are producing, marketing and selling the electrolyte drinks through adverts on YouTube channels and social media sites propagating false information about the products.
The complaints also include that the marketed electrolyte drinks have no approval from the Directorate General of Drug Administration and the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution.
DSCC food safety inspector Kamrul further said that the adverts of the products contain false information that the drinks have different health benefits, including curing dehydration and controlling low blood pressure.
These adverts also claimed that these drinks are substitutes for oral saline which is approved by the World Health Organisation and UNICEF, the inspector said.
He said that he sent samples of the products to the Directorate General of Drug Administration and BSTI to check their authorisation status and learned that none of the two authorities authorised any of these products.
鈥楾he products on their labels carry information on various diseases in clear violation of the Food Safety Act, 2013, and The Packaged Food Labelling Regulations, 2017,鈥� he added.
When asked, Akij Food and Beverage Limited chief marketing officer Maidul Islam claimed that approval from the BSTI is required for BSTI listed mandatory products, but the drink does not fall in that category.
Akij applied for no objection certificate from the BSTI two months back which is in process, he said, adding that he came to know about the company being summoned in court but did not receive any court documents.